Those 3 washed players are better than our entire roster of players that doesn't have the last name Porzingis
I'm a big Tony Parker fan but that guy is basically Jarrett Jack at this point. In no way is he better than our entire roster right now. Dejounte Murray is their best PG, who I love and have since college, but the only difference between him and somebody like Mudiay/Frank/Burke is better coaching.
Pau and Rudy would probably each be the 2nd best player on our roster though. But that is based on a variety of factors, like them being utilized better by Pop. You never know how they'd fare here or what effect guys like Kanter, Lee, or THJR might have in the Spurs system.
I'm sort of in the middle of the argument. While I wouldn't necessarily go as far as saying that the Knicks have as good or a better roster than SAS because the way Pop utilizes guys turns them into higher caliber players, in an alternate reality I also could easily see us hating key players for the Spurs like Gasol or Gay (even LMA tbh) as overpaid useless veterans if they were here (like Gasol was looked at in Chicago his last season there and Gay was viewed in Sacramento basically his entire time there, organizations far more similar to the Knicks than SAS) while some of the younger guys the Spurs get an impact from not making close to the same kind of impact here, and guys like Kanter/Lee/THJ being much better while some of the young guys we have like Frank/Mudiay/Burke/Dotson viewed as emerging stars in the Spurs system if the tables were turned.
It's hard to accurately determine things of that nature when we only know these players in the context of the path they went on/are currently on (I mean I still think that Jonny Flynn could have been our franchise PG if he was drafted into D'Antoni's system and a team committed to him as such as opposed to Rambis' system and a dysfunctional organization ready to replace him with Rubio before giving him a proper chance, as well as COUNTLESS other "what ifs" I have about how certain things might have played out throughout NBA history if such and such was different, but it is what it is), but going off the kind of players these guys were considered to be before going to the Knicks/Spurs, it's not like the Spurs have been consistently getting higher caliber players than us.
But that's the Pop effect. I think we all know that, that's why he's so great and the Spurs have been racking up 50+ wins and championships every year since they beat us in the Finals 2 decades ago. It's not like they have been getting top draft picks outside of Duncan, who they turned into one of the 10 greatest players of all time, or marquee free agents outside of LMA.
We're not going to find a coach like Pop, obviously. IMO there are maybe 5 coaches in the NBA who make an impact on their team that resembles anything close to the value of a all-star caliber player, and Pop is in a class of his own from that exclusive group. He's the only coach in the NBA who's value resembles a franchise player.
You're not going to find any of those caliber coaches available (Stevens, Carlisle, Spo, Thibs being the others IMO), but the goal should be to find somebody just on the outskirts of that exclusive group who demonstrates the potential to get there but hasn't yet because they haven't found the right fit they need to get there or haven't been given the opportunity yet. Unless there is a high caliber assistant coach I'm not aware of the Knicks have in mind (wouldn't be against it) the 2 guys I have in mind most are Kidd and Bud.
I think those guys are right on the outskirts of being elite coaches but haven't been able to climb into that category because Kidd hasn't found a front office willing to work through his stubbornness and Bud hasn't been able to sustain a roster capable of competing despite proving himself capable of being an elite coach in the past.
We're never going to get Pop, obviously, but we definitely need to find someone who will get the most out of this roster and develop our young guys. Particularly Frank. Frank can NOT just become a wash. We can't just give up on him or not prioritize him this early on. We can't allow that to happen even if the front office isn't attached to him because he's a Phil pick or whatever.
The front office needs to do EVERYTHING they can to make sure that does not happen. That should be a top priority for the next coach, which is why I like Kidd so much due to his proven ability to maximize the development of young players as well as his own experience as a PG. I think he is the guy we should be looking for to mold Frank as a raw piece of clay.
Especially with KP now out for so long we need to make sure Frank is able to tap into his massive potential. Because the tools are there, the goal of the front office should be to make Frank's development a matter of Frank and how hard he is willing to work, opposed to being an instance of a coaching staff unable to utilize/develop him properly.
such a waste
